“A product manager is designing (tech) products so they need a little bit of code and technical ability but apart from that it’s design and marketing (skills) and the ability to lead a team — skills that are already common in Australia,” Gruszka said.

“A data scientist would typically have a statistics background but have just learned a little bit about how to manipulate and extract data.

“Some tweaks can turn a person’s previous role into one of the most in-demand tech roles going around.”

ICT workers such as computer coders are in critical shortage. Picture: iStockSource:Supplied

Mr Gruszka said upskilling did not necessarily require a new university degree, either.

“There are no qualifications in start-up land, it’s whether you can do the job well,” he said.

“A lot of these roles don’t have university courses that can teach you to do this stuff.”

The three most common areas studied by ICT workers were business administration and management, marketing and accounting.

Information technology and computer science came in at four and five on the list.

Many ICT workers come from a business background rather than a technical one. Picture: iStockSource:istock

Lawrence Crowther, head of platform architecture for APJ at software company Pivotal, said soft skills — such as the ability to collaborate with peers and stakeholders — were sometimes considered more important than raw technical ability.

He said people found success in the software sector from a wide range of backgrounds.

“Any of the engineering disciplines — such as electrical, chemical or civil — seem to provide good foundations for computer science because of the heavy mathematical and analytical components,” he said.

“Physics graduates seem to make good software engineers because of the abstract thinking and ability to think outside the box.

“In contrast, a former executive in my company had a PhD in music but succeeded in founding and selling several software companies.

“For those who are still in university, my advice would be to take business courses to complement IT classes so that you graduate with all-round skills.”